Short Summary

The toys the children will be playing with next Chriztmas have been on exhibition at the 13th Valencia Toy Fair in Spain since last Wednesday (20 February).

Description

The toys the children will be playing with next Chriztmas have been on exhibition at the 13th Valencia Toy Fair in Spain since last Wednesday (20 February).

Toy manufacturers from many nations are showing off their latest ideas to more than 40,000 buyers.

Model railways never fail to please -- not to mention plastic goldfish which swim automatically or the latest in flamboyant bicycles for children.

Many of the toys were produced in Spain. The Valencia area is now the centre of a thriving toy industry which last year had exports of 17 million sterling (39 million U.S. dollars).

And manufacturers from such countries as Japan, Britain, Hungary, Hong Kong, Italy, Switzerland, the United States, Pakistan, Norway and Holland are increasingly using the valencia Toy Fair as their world shop window.

In Spain, Valencia's thirteenth international Toy Fair is in full swing -- with the latest in model trains attracting toy buyers form many parts of the world.

And from the walls the stares of traditional dolls.

These new monkey dolls cling together. The forty thousand buyers at the fair may decide this is what children will be given next Christmas.

Children's cycles are obviously becoming even more flamboyant.

Among the country's exhibiting on the six hundred stands are Japan, Untied States, Hong Kong and Hungary.

These plastic goldfish which "swim" won last year's first prize for invention.

This year's prize went to this swinging target for toy pistol shooting. Another original idea was a doll with stick on features. She can look happy one moment -- and have a complete change of mood the next.

Increasingly this Valencia Fair is an international shop window for toy manufacturers.